By James Hibberd and Paul J. Gough
LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) -
With CBS close
to losing the total viewers race for the first time in five
years, CEO Leslie Moonves called Fox's ratings hit "American
Idol" a "monster" and urged somebody to "kill that show."
"While we're in repeats, 'American Idol' continues to be a
monster," Moonves said Thursday at the McGraw-Hill Media Summit
in New York City. "It's a phenomenon. If somebody would kill
that show, I'd really appreciate it. But it's a national
phenomenon, and it continues to do extremely well. It's tough
to compete with it."
Fox has won the past three broadcast seasons among the
adults 18-49 demographic and is expected to win this season as
well. CBS has many crime procedurals popular with older
audiences and has won among total viewers the past six seasons.
But after the writers strike gutted networks that rely
heavily on scripted programming, Fox's reality-driven slate
with such shows as "Idol" and "The Moment of Truth" has
outpaced competitors this season by a wider margin than ever. A
couple weeks ago, Fox surpassed CBS among total viewers. Fox
currently averages about 11.5 million to CBS' 10.6 million,
ABC's 9.4 million, NBC's 8.5 million and the CW's 2.6 million.
Even with CBS' scripted programming returning to the air in
the coming weeks, Fox's first-place position is expected to
hold through the conclusion of the May sweep.
Moonves acknowledged CBS wasn't going to be able to
overtake its rival.
"Yeah, we'll finish No. 2," he said.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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